Hanger construction for parenteral liquid container



June 11, 1968 D. A. JELLIES 3,387,732

HANGER CONSTRUCTION FOR PARENTERAL LIQUID CONTAINER Filed March 13, 1967INVENTOR ATTORNEY HANGER CDNSTRUCTION FOR PARENTERAL LEQUID CONTAiNERDavid A. Jellies, Glendale, Califi, assignor, by mesne assignments, toAmerican Hospital Supply Corporation, a corporation of Delaware FiledMar. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 622,520 9 Claims. (Cl. 215-100) ABSTRACT OF THEDISGLOSURE A plastic intravenous solution bottle with a hinged hangerintegrally connected to the container at an indented recess in thecontainers bottom wall. This hanger has edges which snap into retentionpockets in protuberant base sections of the container bottom, thuskeeping the hanger tucked into the recess when the plastic bottle sitson a flat surface.

My invention concerns a plastic parenteral liquid container and moreparticularly a hanger construction on a bottom of this container.

Parenteral liquid containers usually have some means at their bottomsfor hanging them :mouth downwardly when dispensing liquid to a patient.The conventional hanger for a glass bottle is a metal band secured in agroove in the bottle and a wire bail connected to this band. With theadvent of plastic solution bottles, it has been proposed to integrallyform a hanger tab with a bottom wall of the plastic container as inUnited States Patent No. 3,208,710. This hanging tab was integrallyjoined to a flexible web so it could fold into a recess in the bottomwall in United States Patent No. 3,215,299.

The hanging tab of this later patent was fine when the container wasfull and manually set on a flat surface. The weight of the liquid in thecontainer would keep the hanging tab folded up in the bottom wallrecess. However, when the container was empty, as when feeding throughautomatic machinery prior to filling or after its contents wereadministered to a patient, the hinged tab could prevent the containerfrom sitting upright. This is because the empty container was so lightit did not overcome a plastic memory of the flexible hinge causing it tounfold and topple the container.

My invention overcomes this shortcoming of the prior containers byproviding a retention means integral with the container for holding thesuspension tab or hanger within its recess regardless of whether thecontainer is filled or empty, setting upright or lying on its side. Thisretention means includes an undercut pocket in a supporting leg of thecontainer bottom into which the suspension tab snaps. This undercutpocket keeps the suspension tab in its recess until pulled out by anoperator. Any time the operator wants to get the suspension tab out ofthe way, he simply snaps it back into this pocket.

The following drawings will help in understanding my invention:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of the container suspended mouthdownwardly by its hanger construction;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom plan view showing the suspension tab tucked intotwo retention pockets; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevational view of a bottomportion of the container showing the suspension tab tucked into thecontainers retention pockets.

Referring to these drawings in which the same numbers are usedthroughout the various views, numeral 1 designates generally the plasticcontainer with its neck 2 terminating in a dispensing outlet 3. Thecontainer has a bottom 4 (shown at an upper end of FIGURE 1) whichincludes a pair of protuberant base sections 7 and 8 along States Patentopposite sides of a recessed base wall 6. The protuberant base sections7 and 8 have inner walls 12 and 13, respectively, which are closesttogether at a center of the containers bottom and diverge outwardly fromeach other as they proceed to an edge of bottom 4. Base pads exemplifiedby 16 and 17 can be included with the protuberant base sections 7 and 8if desired.

As best shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, these inner walls 12 and 13 haveundercut pockets 14 and 15, respectively. In the particular embodimentshown, these inner walls have undercut portions forming an acute anglewith recessed base wall 6. As shown in FIGURE 3, the suspension tab 10with a hole 11 therein has two edges retained in these undercut pockets14 and 15. So the suspension tab can tuck into the recess at eitherextreme of its hinged arc and be retained therein, the inner walls 12and 13 each have undercut retention pockets on opposite sides of acenter of bottom 4. Preferably, these undercut pockets hold thesuspension tab it} a short distance 18 from recessed bottom wall 6 so anoperator can get his finger in this space to pry the suspension tabloose from retention pockets 14- and 15.

I have found that a suspension tab 10- of the shape shown in FIGURE 2works particularly well when it has spaced from flexible web 9 a widenedsection 19 that snaps into deepened portions of the retention pockets.Thus, the undercut retention pockets have a considerable lever armadvantage with which to overcome the plastic memory of flexible web 9caused by flexible web 9 being molded in its natural position inFIGURE 1. These undercut retention pockets can be made so they becomeprogressively deeper in a lateral dimension as they proceed outwardlyfrom a center of bottom 4 to an edge thereof.

The container shown in the attached drawings can be blow molded of athermoplastic material such as polyethylene, polypropylene, orcopolymers of these and thus give a hanger construction wherein thesuspension tab is conveniently stored and retained in its recess.However, when he wants to, an operator can manually pull this suspensiontab out of its recess with little effort.

In the foregoing specification, I have used a specific example toexplain my invention. It is understood that persons skilled in the artcan make certain modifications to this example without departing fromthe spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. A parenteral liquid container comprising: a plastic body; an integralbase on said body, said base including protuberant base sections adaptedto rest on a fiat surface and an indented base wall spaced from the basesections to form a recess, at least one of said protuberant basesections having an undercut wall section forming a retention pocket; athin, flexible web forming an integral, onepiece unit with the indentedbase wall and extending into the recess; and a supension tab forming anintegral onepiece unit with said web with said suspension tab capable ofextending beyond the base sections, said suspension tab being of a shapeand dimension to snap into said retention pocket in the protuberantbases wall section, whereby the suspension tab can be retained withinsaid recess and not interfere with a fiat surface on which the containeris adapted to sit.

2. A parenteral liquid containing as set forth in claim 1 wherein aplurality of protuberant base sections each have an undercut wallsection forming a retention pocket to receive a plurality of edges ofthe hanger as the hanger is folded into the recess to be retainedtherein.

3. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 1 wherein aprotuberant base section has portions of its undercut wall section lyingon opposite sides of the bases center so the hanger can be retained ateither extreme of a 180 hinged movement as the hanger is folded upadjacent the indented base wall.

4. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 1 wherein thesuspension tab has a widened portion spaced from the flexible web andsaid widened portion is adapted to snap into said retention pocket.

5. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 1 wherein theundercut pocket becomes progressively deeper in a lateral dimension asit proceeds outwardly from the flexible web toward an edge of thecontainer base.

6. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 1 wherein thesuspension tab is retained within the retention pocket while spaced atshort distance from the indented base wall so an operator can get hisfinger in this space to pry the suspension tab out of the retentionpocket to free the suspension tab.

7. A parenteral liquid container comprising: a plastic body; an integralbase on said body, said base including a pair of protuberant basesections adapted to rest on a flat surface and an indented base wallspaced from the base sections to form a recess, said base sectionshaving inner opposed walls which face each other with at least one ofsaid inner walls having a portion which forms an acute angle withrespect to the indented base wall to form an undercut retention pocket;a thin flexible web forming an integral, one-piece unit with theindented base wall and extending into the recess; and a suspension tabforming an integral one-piece unit with said suspension tab capable ofextending beyond the base sections, said suspension tab being of a shapeand dimension to snap into said retention pocket in the protuberantbases wall section, whereby the tab can be retained within said recessand not interfere with a fiat surface on which the container is adaptedto sit.

8. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 7 wherein theopposed inner walls of the protuberant base sections are closest to eachother at a center of said base and diverge outwardly from each other asthey proceed toward outer edges of the base.

9. A parenteral liquid container as set forth in claim 7 wherein each ofthe opposed inner walls of the protuberant base sections have undercutpockets on opposite sides of the bases center so the suspension tab canhave, an edge retained by each of said protuberant base sections ateither extreme of a 180 hinged arc of the suspension tab.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,304,547 12/1942 Cutter 2l5-100XR 2,652,054 9/1953 Bishop 215l00 3,215,299 11/1965 Coanda et a1. 215100DONALD F. NORTON, Primary Examiner.

